by Brendan Geary

In April 2024 the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University published a report on attitudes of Catholics in England and Wales to Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. The report, written by Dr Marcus Pound and Dr Gregory Ryan, is based on a YouGov survey of 3,120 adults who self-identified as Catholics, carried out between 29 June and 26 July 2022.

Their report complements the Cross of the Moment report, which is based on analysis of qualitative data (interviews with 82 people, including 22 survivors). Both reports were published at the same time (see Open House, August 2024).

The purpose of the quantitative research was to better understand the impact of the child sex abuse crisis (CSA) on Catholics in England and Wales; to explore the level of awareness of the topic; and to evaluate the impact of the crisis on Catholics. The research used frequency of mass attendance as a proxy for Church involvement, and financial contributions as a quantifiable measure of the impact of the abuse on Catholic/faith commitment.

Scotland

The report’s authors are careful to point out that there are important differences between England and Wales and Scotland. However, while Scotland and England and Wales may be ‘fundamentally distinct ecclesiastical units’ (p. 8), there are clearly many similarities between the attitudes and experiences of Catholics, especially in relation to CSA. The population of England and Wales is 56,171,000, of which three million (eight percent) are Catholics. Those who attend mass at least weekly make up 19 percent.

The population of Scotland is 5.4 million, and the number of Catholics is approximately 676,000, according to data from the Scottish bishops’ conference. The Durham report, however, offers an estimate of 470,000, which may be more accurate, as estimates of levels of religious membership are often inflated. If this number is correct, Catholics make up 8.7 percent of the Scottish population, and 19.02 percent attend mass at least weekly: very similar to the percentages for England and Wales.

Media

All Catholics in the United Kingdom were exposed via the media to the same reports regarding abuse scandals in the United States (Boston, 2002), Ireland (2009) and other countries; both ecclesiastical units suffered from scandals related to abuse by some priests, brothers and religious sisters. Both units experienced scandals involving bishops and the (mis)management of abuse cases, and both participated in and received critical reports from statutory inquiries.  It is important to add that in both ecclesiastical units the bishops have established agencies to provide advice, training and auditing of safeguarding practice in the Church, and within a relatively short period of time, national structures have been established to ensure that there are diocesan, parish and congregational safeguarding officers/delegates throughout the three countries, with participation in international training events and conferences.

Bearing the above points in mind, it is possible, with a certain amount of caution for Scottish differences (not least within different parts of Scotland), to benefit from the results of this survey to reflect on the likely response of Scottish Catholics to CSA in the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Dr Brendan Geary is a Marist Brother with a background in teaching, formation, counselling and psychology. He has worked in safeguarding for more than twenty years as a therapist, researcher, writer, and teacher.